#idk.....theres a lot to unpack w all of this i dont even really know where to start

[arisatohamuko]

i kinda feel weird complaining about the cookie run bts crossover now that they’ve all decided to enlist in the military... 😭

[mingi-bubu]

🍵 + old gen kpop vs newer gen kpop (and your preference ?? in like terms of music style n stuff)

oooooooooooooooohhh ookokokok this

this is a lot to unpack actually im very excited i love you so much for doing this.

starting off with the basics, it’s fairly obvious that wrt to mvs, i am a staunch music box stan.  idk in some ways to me, that style of filming made it so that set designers and props had to become more creative as they’re confined within a certain amount of space, whereas today like.  well i mean look at literally any mv that’s come out since mid-third gen.  ateez’s illusion, victon’s mayday, astro’s blue flame, pixy’s wings.. theyre so intricate and beautiful to watch of course, but sometimes its nice to go back to the basics so to speak, you know?  idk, like esp w/the technology that exists today, i think that doing a music box style would be so fun.  sorta like how superm did with tiger inside and ateez did (to an extent) with say my name.  like, its a fun combination and homage of sorts to the roots and i just really appreciate that even though fans dont seem to remember the history, the idols themselves do.

musically i do tend to vibe with more recent gens, and i’ve found that as much as i love second gen, third and fourth is where a majority of my tastes and interests lie.  part of it is the greater range that these gens afford re: genres, sounds, voices, etc.  but another part of it is due to the fact that songs sound more cohesive than some of second gen’s.  theres a suju song that, whenever it comes on and if im with someone while im driving, i will point out specifics about how the rap starts and isnt as cohesive as it is in both their later songs but also in current kpop today.  i love my friends and family simply bc they let me tedtalk to them about it, even if they dont care.  second gen also has a very distinct sound i would argue compared to the newer gens.  ive seen it talked about here and there but the kpop industry becoming what it has has made it very difficult in many ways for an individual sound from a group to develop properly and be developed enough to distinguish them from everyone else.  ateez, mcnd, oneus, and kingdom are like, the four groups that come to mind for me that whenever i hear one of their songs, i immediately know who it is, even if i hadnt heard the song before.  second gen is a little easier to tell both which group it is and also that it is, well, second gen.

concepts in the more recent generations have gotten so creative, i truly do enjoy them more than the older gen concepts.  exo is always so good and (not to sound like an exol) they tend to set the bar, or at least predict what the next big thing in kpop will be.  one example is the chain across the face that baekhyun had during obsession era iirc that became super common last year leading into this year.  but concepts like atz’s pirates/doubles and kingdom’s historical ruler concepts are so different in my opinion.  like yeah, atz is in this manner copying exo wrt the evil doubles concept, but the way that they put their own spin on it is very interesting to see, even if i really dont care about the plot line of it at all. (i say with love).

stylings also???  the more things change, the more they stay the same.  i do truly miss how first and second gen, and early early third gen, were styled because it was not only so indicative of the time that they were promoting in, but the beauty standards weren’t as rigorous ?  as they are now.  like... i think i’ve talked about it before but watching early suju stages vs watching stages for fourth gen groups is so different because suju were literally allowed to look like just some guys that walked into the studio.  like, they visually looked like they were Just Some Guy whereas now its like.  very obvious that there is a lot of makeup on these idols.  like, they look like theyre famous, even if they as personalities give off the Just Some Guy vibes.  but in how things stay the same... lord some of these outfits these 3rd and 4th gen idols have to wear makes me look away bc it reminds me of the stuff that 2nd gen had to wear.  sfs era suju i am looking directly at you.

i do like how another easy way to tell if someone is from an earlier generation vs now is the complexity of the choreography.  like, sometimes some choreo makes me concerned about the health and well-being of these people, but in general, the complexity of it is something i would rather see than the music video.  i think i was talking with kenny about it a few days ago but like.. i find myself tuning out of watching an mv if ive seen it a few times unless i really really liked the mv.  but dance practices?  performance mvs?  stages?  i hate looking away bc i love seeing the choreography so much.

and speaking of dance practices, if i cant hear the shoes squeaking or the footsteps coming down, its not a dance practice.  its an underglorified music video.  and yes i am directly @ -ing wayv on this, though i know that it was sm’s decision to have filmed it like that.

i cannot really comment too much on lyricality as i do not understand much korean at all but some of these rappers out here make my head spin with how fast they go.  its like.  how are they breathing during??/  are they breathing during???

but yeah, um.  overall, i think a lot of my love for second gen stems from the relationships the members have, the earnestness their earlier interviews and performances had, and the way that you can see how they not only developed but also have impacted the industry.  my love for the third and fourth gens stems from the fact that they are much more relatable to me as there are members who are around my age, if not 99ers themselves.

i dont know necessarily whom i like more, but i do know that regardless i do love it as a whole and i like the developments that have occurred for the most part, though i am very concerned about many other things that are prevalent in kpop as the idols and in kpop as the fandom.